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For Chilean playwright and director Guillermo Calderón, political theater is as much an investigation into a cause as it is an exploration into a mode of working. Artistic questions are inseparable from the societal conflicts and conundrums that give rise to them, as anyone who has seen “Neva,” “Diciembre,”“Villa” or another of his conceptually austere, theatrically playful works can attest.
The ethic is admirable: Without creative self-scrutiny, without examining how theatrical forms and collaborative methods might unwittingly shore up the status quo, there can be no progress or liberation.
In “The Return of the Dragon,” a brief yet potent video essay produced by Santiago’s Fundación Teatro a Mil, Calderón meditates on the relationship between politics and arts, the efficacy of political theater, and the role of the artist in times of social upheaval. The subject of the film, streaming this weekend in a co-presentation by REDCAT (Calderón’s main Los Angeles home) and ArtsEmerson, is “Dragón,” his most recent play, which premiered in Santiago in June 2019 and was supposed to tour this year in the U.S.